Chapter 101: 101-Treatment
By the time the fairy Zarathia was called to examine Aeltharion, he was already coughing up blood.
Blood was everywhere. It stained his clothes, splattered across the floor, and covered the table and chair nearby.
Aeltharion was in immense pain. His chest hurt. His body hurt. Even his bones seemed to ache. Every part of him was suffering.
Worse still, he could no longer hear anything. He couldn’t speak, and the sense of taste had vanished from his mouth. His complexion had become as pale as chalk. He was in terrible condition.
Fairy Zarathia took his wrist and checked his pulse.
Aeltharion’s heartbeat was frighteningly slow.
No dragon in the world should have been alive with a pulse that weak.
For a moment, Zarathia found herself speechless.
She had known Aeltharion’s condition was serious and that treatment would be necessary, but she had never imagined he would deteriorate so severely in such a short time.
"What treatment has he been receiving until now?" she asked.
Nytherael turned his head and looked at Sseraphis.
If anyone knew the answer, it would be him.
Nytherael had only recently learned that Aeltharion was sick. Unfortunately, there was no answer.
"Why are you looking at me?" Sseraphis asked.
"Weren’t you the one treating him?"
Sseraphis froze. Him? Treating Aeltharion? He couldn’t remember. The memory block inside his mind prevented him from recalling countless things.
"I need to know how you’ve been keeping him alive," Zarathia said. "We’ll have to continue using that treatment because, at the moment, I don’t have another solution."
"Didn’t you see how he was treating Aeltharion?" Nytherael turned and asked Jura.
Jura glanced up when he felt Nytherael’s gaze on him, but he remained silent for nearly two minutes.
Finally, he set down the Book of Nox he had taken from Ssoren and spoke.
"Sseraphis called me on the day he created that illusion in Vessharn. Anything that happened before that... I don’t know."
Nytherael desperately wished Sseraphis could remember everything. Their serpent was smarter than all the healers present combined.
If he had been operating at one hundred percent, he would have known how to stop Aeltharion from coughing blood. He would have known how to restore his hearing and voice but fate was cruel. Sseraphis’s memories remained locked away.
"If anything happens to Aeltharion..." Nytherael swore, his voice trembling with fury. "I’m going to kill Hadrian."
"Let’s solve one problem at a time," Fairy Zarathia said.
She tried laying Aeltharion flat on his back, but that only made him vomit more blood. Laying him on his stomach made his breathing weaken. Sitting was unbearable. Standing was impossible since he had no energy for that.
Throughout it all, Nytherael continued supporting him. He carried Aeltharion’s full weight without complaint.
His heart ached as he looked at the pillar of their family reduced to such a fragile state. Even Aeltharion’s body no longer felt like that of a dragon.
There was no strength left in him. He felt so light that a strong gust of wind seemed capable of carrying him away.
Nytherael handled him with extreme care, afraid that even the slightest pressure might hurt him.
"Just hold on. Sseraphis is thinking of a way to help you," he said.
Deep down, however, he knew Aeltharion couldn’t hear him, and Sseraphis wasn’t currently in a state to think clearly.
Fairy Zarathia dipped her fingers into water.
Without warning, she suddenly approached Sseraphis and grabbed his head.
Sseraphis startled and tried to pull away, but Zarathia held him firmly in place. Closing her eyes, she channeled her power into his mind, forcing him to remember the treatment he had used on Aeltharion before.
"Arghhh!" Sseraphis screamed. The pain that exploded through his head was unbearable.
He wanted to escape, but Zarathia was stronger than him, leaving him helpless. The mental block began breaking apart by force.
Slowly, memories resurfaced. He remembered Aeltharion’s treatments, he remembered Ilyrien, and harvesting his fur every two week for the treatment. He remembered the poisons mixed into Aeltharion’s bathing water and adding his own blood. Everything returned.
The moment the memories settled into place, he grabbed Zarathia’s wrist. When she released him, Sseraphis was breathing heavily.
Aenyra immediately handed him a glass filled with poisonous water to help restore his strength.
Sseraphis stared at Fairy Zarathia with narrowed eyes.
"Weren’t you ever taught to ask permission before doing whatever you want to someone?"
Zarathia wiped the blood from her fingers and asked calmly, "Did you remember, or should we continue?"
The area where her fingers had been touching his head began healing on its own. Within a minute, the pain was completely gone.
"Touch me again, and you’ll learn why a fox like you shouldn’t play games with a serpent," Sseraphis warned.
Poison gathered around his teeth, tongue, claws, and skin. He was fully prepared for a fight. His teeth sharpened as his fangs doubled in size and reinforced themselves.
"Try me," Zarathia replied with a smile. "And you’ll discover how a fox like me can skin you alive and turn your hide into my sleeping clothes."
The smile on her face carried a dangerous edge.
But who was Sseraphis? He had been raised in the Abyssal Coil, where every day was a battle. He had never run from a fight, even when facing someone stronger than himself.
"Come and find out," he said, rising to his feet.
At that moment, Cough... cough... cough... Aeltharion vomited blood onto Nytherael.
"That’s enough, both of you!" Nytherael snapped.
"If you want to fight, go outside. Show some respect to the patient."
"Sorry," they both said at the same time.
"I remember how I kept him alive. Give me a minute," Sseraphis said as he opened his spatial storage.
"I need a large basin filled with water; big enough for Aeltharion to lie in from head to toe."
Aenyra immediately opened her own storage space and produced exactly such a basin. She had originally intended to give it to Sseraphis for Aeltharion’s treatment but had forgotten amidst everything happening around them.
Sseraphis filled the basin with water. Using flames from his fingertips, he heated it until it became steaming hot. Then, he began adding poisons and medicinal ingredients.
Next, he retrieved spare fur from Ilyrien that he kept for emergencies, broke it down into fine particles, and mixed it into the water.
After stirring everything together and adjusting the temperature, he sliced open his palm and let his blood drip into the mixture.
"You’re using poison and medicine together to fight the illness," Zarathia observed, shaking her head as her understanding expanded with every new thing she witnessed.
"Alright. Put him inside. His entire body needs to stay submerged for half a day." The memory had returned clearly now.
"Okay."
Nytherael carefully lifted Aeltharion into his arms as though carrying a child and lowered him into the basin.
The heated water rose around him until his entire body disappeared beneath the surface.
"Is it hurting him?" Nytherael asked Sseraphis anxiously.
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